Chobani Ad: Dear Alice
This short animated Choboni ad about the future of food production can be useful for exploring different environmental discourses, including pastoral, food, and sustainability. It can be used to generate a discussion about food, agriculture, eco-modernism, and mechanism.
Keep America Beautiful: The Crying Indian (1970)
This is a great media example for discussing environmental discourses and ideology. It utilizes the eco-utopian discourse (often represented by indigenous and First Nations peoples) to promote conservationist environmentalism, which aligns with anthropocentric environmental ideology.
Chipotle Ad: Can a Burrito Change the World?
Chipotle asks, Can a burrito change the world? What kind of environmental discourses are used to answer this? How does it describe farming practices? How does Chipotle back its claims? Can Chipotle legitimately claim they are changing the food industry? Discuss the meaning of the phrase at the very end: How we grow our food is how we grow our future.
Will Ferrell’s Super Bowl GM EV Ad
General Motors and Will Ferrell make fun of Norway in this 2021 Super Bowl ad. It can be used to discuss the idea of green nationalism and conservatism. It should be viewed along with Audi and Norway’s response.
Ecosia Ad: Weird Search Requests
Ecosa is a search engine that donates profits to plant trees. It has helped plant over 120 million trees. The ad can prompt discussion on the environmental impacts of web searches and server farms. The ad can also be used to explore environmental ideology and environmental discourses.
On Common Ground: Alexis Bonogofsky
Synopsis: “On Common Ground tells the authentic stories of individuals whose lives have been shaped by our public lands. Taken together, these stories remind us of all that we stand to lose if we sell, pollute, privatize or otherwise destroy the literal common ground we share as Americans. As go our public lands, so goes our democracy. Today, both stand imperiled.” More information: www.oncommonground.land.” This video is good for exploring environmental ideology and environmental discourses.
Chipotle Ad: Back to the Start
Willie Nelson, Coldplay, Chipotle and director Johnny Kelly collaborated with the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation to create this short animated film highlighting the issue of sustainable farming. This video is good for generating a discussion about different food systems–sustainable and industrial–and how these systems are represented. This is also excellent for exploring the spectrum of environmental ideologies (anthropocentric versus ecocentric). Given that this is produced by a fast food chain, could this be considered an example of greenwashing?
Ford’s EV Ad: Organic Compost
Pashon Murray, founder of Detroit Dirt (http://www.detroitdirt.org), parodies the Cadillac ELR Coupe Super Bowl ad. It shows a version of the American Dream in which an entrepreneurial Black women succeeds by creating a business of organic compost. This video should be juxtaposed with the Cadillac Super Bowl ad and can be used as the basis of a discussion about competing visions of the American Dream (who it includes or excludes and its impact on the environment). This ad can be used to explore ecological values. It can also be used in any discussion about the range of environmental politics portrayed in advertising.